SECTION I.
First Voyage of the English East India Company, in 1601, under the Command of Captain James Lancaster.[85]
INTRODUCTION.
From the historiographer of the company[86] we learn, that the period of this voyage being estimated for twenty months, the charges of provisions were calculated at £6,600 4:10: and the investment, exclusive of bullion, at £4,545; consisting of iron and tin, wrought and unwrought, lead, 80 pieces of broad cloth of all colours, 80 pieces of Devonshire kersies, and 100 pieces of Norwich stuffs, with smaller articles, intended as presents for the officers at the ports where it was meant to open their trade. Captain John Davis, who appears to have gone as chief pilot, was to have £100 as wages for the voyage, with £200 on credit for an adventure; and, as an incitement to activity and zeal, if the profit of the voyage yielded two for one, he was to receive a gratuity of £500; if three for one, £1000; if four for one, £1500; and if five for one, £2000.[87] Thirty-six factors or supercargoes were directed to be employed for the voyage: Three of the first class, who seem to have been denominated cape merchants, were to have each £100 for equipment, and £200 for an adventure; four factors of the second class at £50 each for equipment, and £100 for an adventure; four of the third class, with £30 each for equipment, and £50 for adventure; and four of the fourth class, with £20 each for equipment, and £40 for adventure.[88] They were to give security for their fidelity, and to abstain from private trade; the first class under penalties of £500 the second of 500 marks, the third at £200 and the fourth of £100 each.[89] These only exhaust fifteen of the thirty-six, and we are unable to account for the remaining twenty-one ordered to be nominated.
[Footnote 85: Purch. Pilgr. I. 147. Astl. I. 262.]
[Footnote 86: Ann. of the H.E.I. Co. I. 129.]
[Footnote 87: Id. I. 130.]
[Footnote 88: Ann. of the H.E.I. Co. I. 131.]
[Footnote 89: Id. I. 133.]
In the Annals of the Company,[90] we are told that the funds provided for this first voyage amounted to £68,373, of which £39,771 were expended in the purchase and equipment of the ships, £28,742 being embarked in bullion, and £6,860 in goods. But the aggregate of these sums amounts to £77,373; so that the historiographer appears to have fallen into some error, either in the particulars or the sum total. We are not informed of the particular success of this first voyage; only that the conjunct profits of it and of the second amounted to £95 per cent. upon the capitals employed in both, clear of all charges.[91]